Blade Runner 2049

Okay... how do the characters possibly give it a more multicultural feel? Other than the holographic sex doll, were there any minorities? And the only other culture I can think of is the MacGuffin Girl's accent.

Lessee...Sapper is played by a guy of Greek/Fillipino descent.

Mr. Cotton is black.

Doc Badger, Somali (his character doesn't bother to speak English despite seeming to understand it).

Mariette's two fellow replicant...doxies are a woman of color and a Finnish woman.

The file clerk guy is Icelandic and has a very Nordic, if hairless, look to him.

Freysa, leader of the replicant freedom fighters, is played by a Palestinian woman.

Gaff.

I don't know that i'd classify Dr. Stelline as a MacGuffin Girl, but in any case she's Swiss.

Luv is played with what is more or less the actresses' Dutch accent.

A lot of the extras are of various European cultures due to the film being made in Central Europe.

That plus the Japanese language seems like the most prominent second language among several of the characters.

Calling Joi a sex doll is also kinda missing the point, I think. But even so, making such a character Cuban when in the present day the two most popular 'female' digital assistants are white women, as far as that goes, is something.

edited 6th Dec '17 1:15:32 PM by ArthurEld

It's available on Amazon, Xbox, and Playstation now.

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2017/12/blade-runner-2049-review.html

My review? Really-really good but not quite as good as the Final Cut.

I thought that ending on the steps and the reveal that Joe isn't the Chosen One was nice, but I'm not sure there's as much there there as in the original. Rachel and Deckard are interesting because of how much is left unsaid. Joi's death, and the way she acts as a surrogate for Joe's emotions, it's a little too on the nose or my liking.

There also isn't anything quite as lyrical as Roy Batty's death, and while I actually thought Ryan Gosling brought a lot to a character that doesn't necessarily give a lot of obvious beats to act, he gets considerably more resolution here than Deckard ever did. There's none of the original's ambivalence, the sense that going with Rachael might be foolish, dangerous, futile, or ultimately meaningless (but worth it all the same)— Joe does the right thing and it costs him, but it's a price he's willing to pay, and Deckard at least gets a relatively happy ending, Luv is killed and the revolution lives on.

It's a bit too pat, as open-ended endings go. So while I'm glad this movie exists, finally, and it was nice to check in with Harrison Ford again, I do wish it had avoided pulling on the strings of the first Blade Runner.

edited 26th Dec '17 9:42:20 PM by Unsung

Weirdly, I think the most interesting parts of the story are the ones which have nothing to do with the actual story:

1. The environmentalism description in the movie is much stronger where it's clear that humanity is trying to improve things but it may be too little too late. We've got the giant flood walls, the massive solar energy complexes, windmills, and more but people are still eating worms for protein.

2. Replicants are actually better off than a lot of humanity in this new world despite being slaves. They've become necessary due to the fact they do the unwanted jobs that they have food, shelter, and clothing plus a (presumably small) financial stipend while we have the destitute children and junkers left to live or die based on scavenging.

3. JOI's story is a lot more interesting if she ISN'T sentient as it makes the story about how K has humanized her and been humanized by a fictional character (which is something appropriate for a huge genre-defining work like Blade Runner) versus a story about another layer of consciousness.

4. There's actually a complete subversion of the Chosen One narrative as a whole because Baby Deckard is an immune deficiency suffering corporate drone. She's in no position to be the messiah for anyone and can't. However, she's unwittingly inspired a bunch of people who made her story larger than it was.

edited 26th Dec '17 10:47:09 PM by CharlesPhipps

You're not wrong about point 3, but I think it's the difference between What Could Have Been versus how it was presented here. The thought is there, but it felt a little too spelled out and (ha-ha) artificial for me. The scenes with her are kind of lovely, but they don't feel like the same movie— they're a little *too* good to be true. Even though that's deliberate, I still think it would've worked better if we'd been more able to see the seams, the imperfections that make a person want to believe in love all the more.

About point 4, yeah, that's what I liked about it. What could have been a very straightforward Chosen One story if Joe had been the Deckard baby quietly unravels into something else, something more fragile in all the right ways.

edited 26th Dec '17 10:47:35 PM by Unsung

I wrote an essay about it:

"The Importance of Not Being Special"

I think the movie had the same sort of populist message The Last Jedi had except it didn't work there and worked for Blade Runner 2049.

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2017/12/blade-runner-2049-importance-of-not.html

Suddenly, an anime series!

Essentials:

• It’s called Blade Runner — Black Lotus.
• Produced by Crunchyroll, [adult swim] and Alcon Entertainment.
• Directed by Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama.
• Shinichiro Watanabe is a creative producer.
• Will run for 13 half-hour episodes.
• [adult swim] will be showing it everywhere but Asia and will be on Toonami.
• Takes place in the year 2032, so after the first movie, but before 2049. Expect familiar faces.
• And it’s a mix of 2D and CG animation.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Nov 29th 2018 at 2:21:23 PM

Unexpected, but appreciated. I'm intrigued.

...Berserk CGI? >_>

The anime short had some CGI in it. There are ways to make it work. But, we do have egregious examples of it failing.

Not all anime CGI is that poor. See Land Of The Lustrous and, of course, the Appleseed movie.

Rutger Hauer is no more…

RIP.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Ridley Scott confirmed he writing for a live action television spin-off series for Blade Runner.

Saw it, loved it. No more to say.

What's weird for me, is that I saw 2049 first, and the original second, but I liked the latter more. Don't know why exactly, but I just did.

As great as 2049 is, it's very much... A Sequel. It doesn't really stand independently (through no real fault of its own), whereas the original is a pretty self-contained narrative.

Edited by Chortleous on Aug 24th 2022 at 9:54:28 AM

Yes, its meant to follow up on the themes of the first movie. Its not meant as a remake or standalone.